Criteria of cerebral death.

Abstract

This critical survey of the current means of determining cerebral death has indicated certain shortcomings in each of the sets of criteria currently in use. It is apparent that criteria applied at a point in time and based upon a single organ system-clinical history and findings, EEG examinations or cerebral blood flow determinations - will fall short of absolute accuracy. The clinical examinations alone have an accuracy approximating 90%, the EEG findings have greater accuracy but a much smaller scope. Cerebral blood flow studies, short of four-vessel angiography, achieve about the same accuracy, but their scope is not yet determined. The combination of all three may prove to be optimal.